In the memoirs of Pierre Van Paasen there’s a story about Nazi storm troopers who seized an elderly Jewish rabbi and dragged him to headquarters, to a room where another Jew was being beaten to death. Then, stripped naked, he was ordered to preach the sermon he’d prepared for the Sabbath. The rabbi asked for his yarmulke, and the Nazis, grinning, agreed. Poked and prodded by his captors, the trembling rabbi delivered, to the cries of his dying neighbor, a sermon on humility.